Pirates notebook: Team not likely to offer Morneau during exclusive-rights period

The Pirates' Justin Morneau watches the game against the Cardinals from the dugout Saturday, Aug. 31, 2013, at PNC Park.

Christopher Horner | Tribune-Review

Pirates first baseman Justin Morneau celebrates with teammates in the dugout after scoring during the third inning against the Cardinals on Friday, Oct. 4, 2013, in Game 2 of the National League Division Series at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

Top free-agent first basemen

Player 2013 team Age G HR RBI Avg OPS

Kendrys Morales Mariners 30 156 23 80 .277 .785

Justin Morneau Twins/Pirates 32 152 17 77 259 .734

Corey Hart* Brewers 32 149 30 83 .270 .841

James Loney Rays 29 158 13 75 .299 .778

Mike Napoli Red Sox 32 139 23 92 .259 .842

Note: Age on Opening Day 2014 * — Didn’t play in 2013; stats are from 2012 season

We are currently undergoing updates to our site and are working to improve your experience on all devices that you use throughout your day. If you should find a page or a story that is not working correctly, please click here.

Thank you for your patience,

TribLIVE.com Team

Although finding a first baseman is one of the Pirates' top offseason priorities, free agent Justin Morneau does not appear to be the answer.

On Thursday, Morneau told the Tribune-Review he does not expect an offer from the Pirates during the team's exclusive-negotiating period, which ends Monday.

Clubs could begin negotiating with their free agents after the World Series, which ended Wednesday night.

“They have said they don't expect to do anything before the window is closed but are still interested,” Morneau said in an email. “My options are wide-open.”

The Pirates acquired the former American League MVP in an Aug. 31 trade with the Twins.

In 31 games with the Pirates, including six in the playoffs, Morneau batted .267 with no home runs and three RBIs.

Before Morneau arrived, Gaby Sanchez and Garrett Jones platooned at first base. Overall in 2013, Pirates first basemen ranked 25th in the majors in home runs and RBIs.

Sanchez made $1.754 million this season and is going into his second year of arbitration eligibility. Jones, who has two years of arbitration eligibility left, made $4.5 million in 2013 and is a non-tender candidate.

The deadline to tender contracts is Dec. 2.

Rodriguez decision due

Left-hander Wandy Rodriguez must decide in the next few days whether to trigger his $13 million contract option for 2014.

If Rodriguez activates the option, the Pirates will be responsible for $7.5 million, and the Houston Astros will pay the rest.

Persistent forearm pain limited Rodriguez to 12 starts this season. He pitched in 13 games for the Pirates in 2012 after being acquired in a trade with the Astros.

General manager Neal Huntington said he believed Rodriguez will be healthy by the start of spring training.

Burnett still in limbo

Neither the club nor A.J. Burnett has given any indication yet whether the right-hander will retire. Near the end of the season, Huntington said the team will do “everything in our power” to lure Burnett back. Huntington did not say if that includes making a $14.1 million qualifying offer by the Monday deadline.

Burnett turned down repeated requests by the Tribune-Review for comment.

Burnett, who will turn 37 in January, went 10-11 with a 3.30 ERA and 1.215 WHIP this past season. In Game 1 of the NL division series, Burnett was torched for seven runs in two innings by the St. Louis Cardinals. He then was bypassed in favor of rookie Gerrit Cole as the Game 5 starter.

Missing memento

When catcher Tony Sanchez returned to his offseason home in Miami and unpacked his gear, something was missing: the ball from his first hit in the major leagues. Wednesday night, Sanchez bemoaned the loss in a tweet: “It's official. I lost my 1st big league hit baseball.”

On June 23, in the second inning against the Angels, Sanchez mashed a 2-1 fastball from Joe Blanton. The ball stuck in the right-field wall at the base of the scoreboard for a ground-rule double.

After the game, the ball was given to Sanchez. He took it with him a few days later when he was sent back to Triple-A Indianapolis. Sanchez spent the final two months of the season with the Pirates. Somewhere along the way, he lost track of the baseball.

Better odds next year

Oddmakers Bovada and Pregame.com both gave the Pirates 25-1 odds to win the World Series next year. The Los Angeles Dodgers are 5-1 favorites to win the 2014 Series. A pair of NL Central foes — the Cardinals (10-1) and Reds (16-1) — also are among the frontrunners. A year ago, the Pirates' odds were listed at 30-1 by Bovada.

Going into the 2013 season, the Boston Red Sox were given 22-1 odds to win the World Series. Wednesday, the Red Sox clinched the title by beating the Cardinals, 6-1, in Game 6.

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our
Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent
via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.